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Why Oshkosh's Unmanned Trucks Will Make Marines Safer

The company's TerraMax technology can help defeat IEDs and clear battlefield routes.

Oshkosh(NYSE:OSK) makes specialty vehicles for a variety of applications, and its defense segment accounts for almost half its revenue. With a market cap of $4 billion, the company is also competing for contracts against foes with much greater resources, such as General Dynamics(NYSE:GD) ($30 billion) and Lockheed Martin(NYSE:LMT) ($40 billion).

Oshkosh may not garner the headlines of some of its closest rivals, but the chart below shows what investors have been missing over the past five years.

Oshkosh has now developed TerraMax unmanned ground vehicle technology, something that could give it a leg up on the competition. TerraMax provides safer ways to deal with improvised explosive devices and to clear routes on the battlefield.

Motley Fool analysts Blake Bos and Rex Moore caught up with John Beck, chief unmanned systems engineer for the Oshkosh defense segment, at the recent Unmanned Systems 2013 conference in Washington, D.C. In this first of a three-part series, Beck explains the feedback he's getting from U.S. Marines using the technology.

Author

Rex Moore spent his formative years in Texas, and fought beside Davy Crockett at the Alamo. He currently travels the globe for TMF, bringing back video reports on conferences and companies that matter for investors.